I don't watch that show, but I think that's pretty much par for the course when it comes to the vegan portrayal on TV shows. the EASY joke is to make us look like protein deficient hippies just happy to be against ANYTHING. meh. even Futurama went there.

Parenthood (an hour long drama on NBC) had a veggie story line. A five year old girl decides she wants to be a vegetarian. Her parents support her. Her mom says she doesn't want to break her spirit. Then the little girl's grandparents come babysit her one evening and have brought the girl's old favorite dinner, lasagna, with them - not knowing she's gone veggie. The girl's mom has prepared seitan for her dinner. The little girl refuses to eat either. Later on the little girl tells her mom that Grandpa forced her to eat meat. Then the mother is upset with Grandpa for not respecting the little girl's choice (though he actually did not force her to eat meat - he told her to make a choice and she refused either choice) Then Grandma says to the mother "you can't let your daughter call all the shots." The depiction of vegetarianism was a bit ambiguous, because they portrayed the little girl as being demanding because she was refusing to eat either the veggie or the meat choice. However, you could say that the portrayal was ultimately negative, because they showed the little girl choosing vegetarianism as not really invested in it or just involved in a childish whim. So even though it wasn't your typical "fruity vegan" media portrayal - they still managed to subtly discredit veganism.

One of the fundamental humor engines for situation comedies is character stereotype that interact with each other and the conflict creates humor. The more extreme the characters, the more conflict and humor you get.

So any vegan in a sitcom is probably going to be an extreme. The same goes for any religious or ethnic minorities; who arguably get a worse rap most times. That is how sitcoms are done, like them or not. But to get all bent out of shape about it really doesn't do anything to solve the problem. Instead I think we should just try set good examples ourselves.

Iron Clad Ben, you have a good point. I understand that extreme characters are much more interesting to watch and that when referring to vegans in TV shows, that is the obvious stereotype to use. I am sure it is all in good fun.

I wouldn't say that I am "bent out of shape" by it though. I'm not refusing to watch the show now because of this or trying to turn anyone against it. I just took note of it, didn't particularly appreciate it, and wanted to see how others felt. Now that you have managed to contribute a complete thought, I know how you feel about it.

I don't think I would mind if I felt like non-vegans didnt actually feel that way about us, because then we could all poke fun at stereotypes and laugh at ourselves, but I know too many people that are completely ignorant on anything vegan. Because so few people are knowledgeable about veganism, I think any representation they see on TV is going to have an influence on how they view vegans. Most people I know can't even fully grasp what vegan actually means.."You don't drink milk?! Man....but you still eat fish though, right?"
I feel like these kinds of jokes only reinforce ignorance and make compassion seem like a character flaw.

Because so few people are knowledgeable about veganism, I think any representation they see on TV is going to have an influence on how they view vegans. Most people I know can't even fully grasp what vegan actually means.."You don't drink milk?! Man....but you still eat fish though, right?"
>I feel like these kinds of jokes only reinforce ignorance and make compassion seem like a character flaw.
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Amen.

Now that veganism is in the mainstream, more people have heard the word, but the ones who actually understand it are few and far between.

Some particularly irritating portrayals of "vegans" include:

Lisa on "Six Feet Under" who is your stereotypical hippie nut-job but eats tuna when she's pregnant because she "needs the extra protein."

Todd the Vegan in "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" who turns out to be a chicken-eater.

The horrible, horrible lady on "Wife Swap" who was supposedly a hard-core vegan, but then ate alligator in Louisiana.

What bothers me most about this is that non vegans then believe this false stereotypes about vegans. So when people tell me "you're actually a nice vegan" it is most likely because the other vegans they know are fictional characters

But now how do we fix this. I usually just laugh along, even if it bothers me and then say something like: "but seriously, vegans are really not like that "

Yeah Craig, that made me laugh too. I am not against all jokes at the expense of what I believe in.
I liked this clip because there was actually some thought in the joke. They incorporated vegetarianism into the joke rather than the joke just being that vegetarianism exists. Also, I think that this is equally poking fun at how extreme vegans can be sometimes and how ridiculously ignorant non-vegans can be.